On online debates: fundamental differences

Back in the day, they knew how to debate. Introduction. Here’s a thought, or argument: Most online disputes can be traced back to differences of premises. I’m observing this time and time again: two people disagree, but fail to see why. Each party believes they are right, and so they keep on debating; it’s like […]

Miten tuottaa lisäarvoa dynaamisella uudellenkohdennuksella?

Juttelin tänään erään Facebookin edustajan kanssa, jonka tehtävänä on auttaa Elämyslahjoja tekemään parempaa Facebook-mainontaa. Keskustelu pyöri aloittelijatasolla, kunnes sanoin että olemme tehneet Facebook-mainontaa jo monta vuotta ja tiedämme nämä perusjutut. Silloin henkilö ehdotti meille Facebookin dynaamista uudellenkohdennusta (eng. dynamic retargeting). Ko. mainonnan muoto siis toimii niin, että tietyllä tuotesivulla käyneelle henkilölle näytetään Facebookissa samasta tuotteesta […]

What is a “neutral algorithm”?

1. Introduction Earlier today, I had a brief exchange of tweets with @jonathanstray about algorithms. It started from his tweet: Perhaps the biggest technical problem in making fair algorithms is this: if they are designed to learn what humans do, they will. To which I replied: Yes, and that’s why learning is not the way […]

Advertisers actively following “Opportunities” in Google AdWords risk bid wars

PPC bidding requires strategic thinking. Introduction. Wow. I was doing some SEM optimization in Google AdWords while a thought struck me. It is this: Advertisers actively following “Opportunities” in AdWords risk bid wars. Why is that? I’ll explain. Opportunities or not? The “Opportunities” feature proposes bid increases for given keywords, e.g. Week 1: Advertiser A […]

Belief systems and human action

What people believe, sometimes because real because of that. 1. Introduction. People are driven by beliefs and assumptions. We all make assumptions and use simplified thinking to cope with complexities of daily life. These include stereotypes, heuristical decision-making, and many forms of cognitive biases we’re all subject to. Because information individuals have is inherently limited […]

Digital marketing in China: search-engine marketing on Baidu

Introduction China is an enormous market, amounting to 1.3 billion people and growing. Out of all the BRIC markets, China is the furthest in the adoption of technology and digital platforms, especially smartphones and applications. Perhaps the most known example of Chinese digital platforms in the West is Alibaba, the ecommerce giant with market cap […]

Media agency vs. Creative agency: Which will survive?

In space, nobody can hear your advertising. Earlier today I wrote about convergence of media agencies and creative agencies. But let’s look at it from a different perspective: Which one would survive? If we had to pick. To answer the question, let us first determine their value-provided, and then see which one is more expendable. […]

A few thoughts on ad blockers

Anti-ad-blockers are becoming common nowadays. Introduction. So, I read an article saying that ad blockers are not useful for the users. The argument, and the logic, is conventional: 1) the internet is not really free; 2) publishers need advertisers to subsidize content creation which in turn is also in the users’ interest, because 3) they […]

Problems of standard attribution modelling

Attribution modelling is like digital magic. Introduction Wow, so I’m reading a great piece by Funk and Nabout (2015) [1]. They outline the main problems of attribution modelling. By “standard”, I refer to the commonly used method of attribution modelling, most commonly known from Google Analytics. Previously, I’ve addressed this issue in my digital marketing […]

Programmatic ads: Fallacy of quality supply

A major fallacy publishers still have is the notion of “quality supply” or “premium inventory”. I’ll explain the idea behind the argument. Introduction. The fallacy of quality supply lies in publishers assuming the quality of certain placement (say, a certain website) is constant, whereas in reality it varies according to the response which, in turn, is […]